Micro Center visit

[craighazan]

As my car was getting serviced, I discovered there was a Micro Center 20 minutes drive away, so I decided to pay a visit. Pass the returns trolley full of 3080s and the Ryzen 5800X cabinet, there was a whole wall devoted to motherboards!, I took some photos of my favorite motherboard box art.




GPU prices still seemed a little high, but VisionTek put up a good showing with a couple of options to choose from.




Other exciting highlights included these two blinged out cases from Lian Li, loving the blue and white combo there.




A lot of Ryzen 5800X in the cabinet, only two Ryzen 5800X3D interestingly. And what I ended up buying.

 

[trs96]

And what I ended up buying.

Why fifty feet of Cat5e cable ?

Does this Lian Li case sell with the liquid cooler and fans pre-installed or are they separate ? It would be great if case makers would bundle a good PSU with the case and give you a discount because of that. They could make sure all the cables are the correct length for their specific case and it would make cable mgt. super easy. Unfortunately every case/psu combo I've ever seen throws in a cheapo PSU that's likely to fry your motherboard or go up in flames not long after you plug in.

 

[craighazan]

Why fifty feet of Cat5e cable ?

Good question!. The Mini Cube is currently running Clover/Catalina because USB Wifi works, And I'm not comfortable with disabling security just to get it working in Monterey. So I bought 50ft of ethernet cable to reach the access point, which is 15ft away. Then I can install OpenCore and Monterey and have wired Internet.

 

[craighazan]

Does this Lian Li case sell with the liquid cooler and fans pre-installed or are they separate ?

View attachment 546642

I didn't check to be honest!. There was an entire isle devoted to liquid cooling!.

 

[pastrychef]

When I go to Micro Center, I always get the same feeling I got when mom used to bring me to toy stores when I was a kid.

 

[trs96]

I didn't check to be honest!. There was an entire isle devoted to liquid cooling!.

I'd highly suggest you get one of these from Amazon. Saves you a lot of money in the long run. Compressed air is not good for the environment either. If you have a lot of computers, it makes sense to buy one.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098T5WMMK/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[craighazan]

I'd highly suggest you get one of these from Amazon. Saves you a lot of money in the long run. Compressed air is not good for the environment either. If you have a lot of computers, it makes sense to buy one.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098T5WMMK/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

View attachment 546644

I hoped that I would've evened out my carbon credits because its being used to clean my noisy hungry 3600X before being moved on!

 

[pastrychef]

I'd highly suggest you get one of these from Amazon. Saves you a lot of money in the long run. Compressed air is not good for the environment either. If you have a lot of computers, it makes sense to buy one.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098T5WMMK/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

View attachment 546644

I got a Data Vac years ago. Loud as a jet engine but has worked really well.

 

[craighazan]

I got a Data Vac years ago. Loud as a jet engine but has worked really well.

View attachment 546645

I must of missed the data vac isle!.

 

[trs96]

I got a Data Vac years ago. Loud as a jet engine but has worked really well.

Yes, I've got the exact same one. Have used it for 5+ years and it still works well. I blow dust out of a lot of PCs so it's been a really good investment. Cost was fifty something dollars. Looks to have doubled since then.